Harris peeved to be passed over for Deacon as Bulls captain

Iestyn Harris made no effort to hide his disappointment yesterday after losing the Bradford captaincy to his half-back partner Paul Deacon. Harris was appointed only last year when Jamie Peacock moved to Leeds but Steve McNamara, going into his first full season as the Bulls coach, believes that it put too much responsibility on the Wales stand-off's shoulders.

"Iestyn did a great job for me under difficult circumstances last season, when he was under tremendous pressure for lots of reasons," said McNamara. "I decided to make a change. We want Iestyn to be the best player he can be."

Harris, however, does not necessarily agree. "That's Steve's theory," he responded. "He felt that the club was a difficult place to be around last year and there was a lot of outside pressure that came on to my shoulders. He wanted me to have a pressure-free start to the year and concentrate on my game. Obviously I'm disappointed a little bit. But Steve wanted to go that way, and I've accepted it. I've got to kick on and move on now."

Harris is at least confident of being fit for Bradford's first game of the Super League season, against Huddersfield on February 11. Deacon also dispelled doubts over his fitness after picking up a knee injury in pre-season training, although the Bulls' Australian second-row Chris McKenna is unlikely to have recovered from a wrist operation and Lesley Vainikolo has still to return to full training following his latest knee problem.

Salford have lost their Ireland full-back Karl Fitzpatrick for at least the first two months of the season after he suffered a torn achilles in training.

The future of the former New Zealand international Michael Smith with the Super League newcomers Hull Kingston Rovers is in serious doubt after he reported back for pre-season training in such poor condition that he was dropped from the warm-weather camp in Torremolinos. "Because he's not up to the level that I want him to be at, it was decided [he should] stay behind and work on his fitness and condition in Hull," said the Rovers coach Justin Morgan. "We had a frank talk about the situation and it is up to him to reach the standards I want from him."

Supporters on both sides of Hull's divide, and many beyond, were in mourning yesterday following the death of Peter Flanagan, the former Great Britain hooker better-known by his nickname of Flash. Flanagan, who was 65, made more than 400 appearances for Hull KR and became the club's first Lions tourist in 1966. He also came out of retirement with the Hull Dockers amateur club, initially as AN Other, to help Hull FC to the John Player Trophy final in 1976.